


Family

by Tene_draws



Category: Monster Prom (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mute Yellow | Oz, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24774487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tene_draws/pseuds/Tene_draws
Summary: Contains spoilers for Vera and Scott secret Endings.Oz ponders the meaning of family and more importantly, the meaning of his own family
Relationships: Vera Oberlin/Yellow | Oz
Kudos: 47





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> It's been so long since I wrote a fanfic haha, but Monster Prom inspired me :3 Please check out the game! And leave me feedback since my writing is bound to be rusty! No real ships here, but you can imagine what you want! For me, I'd personally recommend imagining ozmien happens in 10 years time UwU

“-So the real story here is that I got to keep that stick. It was a sick stick!” Val purred, eyes wide and sparkling as Vera grimaced. Rolling red marbles in her head as she flicked her snakes dismissively, 

“Oh shut up. Nah, the thing here is that family isn’t just a word. These moments are the ones that truly matter. Val and my dad have always been there for me. They accept me for who I am while pushing me to be my best self, because they care for me. So yes they ARE family. But not for cooking a stupid dish for Thanksgiving, goddammit…” 

Two orbs of white glanced down at the hastily constructed clobber; which more aptly resembled a pie that had been ground atop of crushed biscuits and covered in mushy half-baked custard and blobby cranberry sauce.. which was admittedly, how Oz had made it. In their defense, food in general just wasn’t their forte. Oz wasn’t quite sure what was really food anyway, considering that he had seen Scott eat a box of toothpicks once and Damien devour hot coals. 

Regardless of what food constituted though, apparently this dish they had made was.. ‘stupid’. 

Lowering the dish, Oz tuned out what Vera was saying next, as they stared at the stony steps of her front porch. Light was pouring out from the opening behind Vera, the sound of some old timey song playing. Drowned out by the words Oz was replaying in their head; Family was… more than just a word. Family was.. always there and they accepted you and care for you and they weren’t found in a hastily made dish. 

So, where was his family…? 

“-come inside and join us for dinner, Oz? Oz?” Vera called, watching the shadowy creature make a dismissive wave and turn on their heel. Little Phobias curling around their arm, as Oz disappeared into an inky night all while staring down hard at the dish. Well, that was.. unexpected. After all the headache that the inky demon had put her through the past few weeks, she was sure that Oz would’ve been ecstatic to join them for dinner or at the very least eager. 

She could never quiet read Oz; in fact.. she wasn’t quite sure what he was either. The file in her cabinet of classmate blackmail on them was annoying blank. She had never spoken to them much either, save for these few weeks where the monster seemed almost obsessively fixed on becoming part of her ‘family’.

Val sidled up to her in the light of the door. Making a purring sound as she watched where Oz had been, “Well, that was weird, huh Vee.” 

“Quite.” 

“Girls! The chickens getting cold!” A warm raspy voice drew them back. Vera glanced back at the night, her snakes also fixated on the darkness before the gorgon shut the door. Hopefully, things would be back to normal after Prom.  
\---  
_"Nah, the thing here is that family isn’t just a word. These moments are the ones that truly matter. Val and my dad have always been there for me.”_

Oz sat on the front porch of Spooky High, resting their chin on their hand as they pondered over Vera’s words. The monster was… to say the least bit, fascinated with the concept of.. a ‘family’. They had seen Vera and Val together, when the latter wasn’t meticulously maintaining her shop. They had seemed so, at ease with one another. Vera had even smiled, a genuine one because Oz hadn’t felt anyone’s fear flare up when she showed her teeth. It had been so, so warm. It left the usually isolated and introverted Oz feeling…something. Knowing that they were sisters, that they were ‘family’…Well, how could they resist wanting to be a part of that when they saw the Gorgon’s guide in Val’s shop? It seemed like every attempt to get closer to Vera had failed spectacularly. 

But, if they couldn’t just join a family through non-prom, for once, related shenanigans then what were they to do, but try to find their own family? 

After all, Vera had one and she was the most terrifying strong independent gorgon in school. Damien had two fathers, both kings of the eighth circle of hell. Miranda flaunted her own royal family and Scott didn’t hesitate to call his grandmother and cousins family. Liam never nor gave any indication he had a family, but it seemed as if had had one at one point in his life. And Polly, well, Oz would never again ask her how baby ghosts were made.

Even those closest to them, seemed to have a family. Brian said his lived in a graveyard, Amira took regular trips home to see hers and Vicky had recently begun showing them pictures of her newest baby brother; nicknamed Frankie jr after her ‘father’. They all had families! 

So surely, Oz; age-old personification of all the world’s fears and phobias had to have a family of their own right? 

But if family was always supposed to be there for you, why hadn’t Oz’s family been there for them? As far back as Oz could remember, before the very first evolved monster had crawled out of the sea, they had been…alone. An amalgamation of instinctual fear gestating somewhere in a void far from this realm. 

The first time a monster had properly evolved, Oz was…. Still alone. Still in the void. And the first time they had achieved sentience; pulling together a cacophony of screaming voices into something that resembles a cohesive thought (that of which had been; wow it’s dark in here), the lack of another being had only become more noticeable. Coming to this plane, enrolling into Spooky High, meeting the color squad… hadn’t really changed the fact that no ‘family’ had shown up for them.  
Alright… so.. their family hadn’t always been there for them, but- 

_“They accept me for who I am while pushing me to be my best self,”_

Maybe, they were somewhere, just not where Oz could see them! Oz had overhead Damien once say his fathers were always looking out for him from afar! And that he was always trying to make them accept him for who he was! Maybe.. maybe.. their family was somewhere afar, watching Oz, but.. 

Oz hadn’t felt accepted from the moment they set foot on this plane. They weren’t really a monster after all, people were afraid, as they rightfully were. The first few times had been ‘fun’, Oz could admit that. Feeding on the fears of human and monsterkind; scaring them into submission, but.. after a while, it just felt lonely. People didn’t like being scared on purpose, when it wasn’t something like one of Scott and Polly’s Prankmasterz patented pranks. People didn’t like being around a creature that made you fearful all the time. 

So, Oz had left behind those ways. Changed their form to something less ‘intimidating’. Stopped purposefully scaring people and channeled all fear back into the void; where they could feed in private. Even then, people hadn’t accepted them. They just started to forget Oz was there half of the time. Ignore the dorky shadowy not-monster monster.  
Even with the friends Oz had now; the color squad. Oz wondered if they would fully accept what Oz was. They felt… happy with them, but each of them already had their own families. Oz had no one. Oz didn’t have a family. 

Oz didn’t even have a prom date for monster prom, but they didn’t really feel like asking anyone now. 

Who’d want to go with a family-less freak like them? 

The phobias lurking above their flesh waved their tiny stick like arms, hugging each other, but they were no more than Oz’s own thoughts manifested to help make thinking easier without the constant screaming of other voices in their head. Oz poked at them gently. Watching them wrap their tiny arms around Oz’s finger as if trying to comfort them.  
At the very least, maybe Oz could hang out with their friends tonight. Surely, they weren’t the only one who had gotten so side-tracked with getting a family that they forgot to get a date right? 

Right?  
.  
.  
.

Everyone seemed to have gotten a date to prom! Even the background characters all seemed to be coming in in pairs! Even the interdimensional prince was dancing with a corpse! Oz hadn’t seen Amira, Brian or Vicky either. The only person Oz had recognized in the crowd all night was the one gorgon Oz had been hoping to avoid hopefully forever. Or at least, for another hour maybe? 

No… No, they had to do this now. 

Taking the shadow being equivalent of a breath, which meant the room around them dropped several degrees, Oz made their way over to her. Several phobias waving at the snakes that turned their way. They tapped the gorgon carefully on the arm, bracing in case Vera decided this was one of her days to greet people with knives and venom in the eyes. 

“Hm? Oz-“ Vera turned, but Oz was already signing. 

_‘I’m sorry about everything. About trying to force myself into your family. You and Val, you looked so happy together. As a family. I wanted to feel what it was like, but, it turns out I don’t have one. I’m sorry.’_

Oz turned to leave quickly, hopefully disappear somewhere into the crowd, when they felt a hand on their shoulder. Firm and with the threat to lob off their arm if they didn’t stay. Vera turned him around. Oz stared at her, transfixed by the many glowing stares of her snakes before they noticed her own hands; moving fluidly through the air as she signed back to him over the din of the dance music. 

_‘What do you mean you don’t have one?’_

Oz paused, then signed back shyly, _‘I don’t remember ever having anyone who was there for me, accepted me for who I am. I don’t know what it’s like to have a family.’_

_‘What about those friends of yours?’_

_‘They all have families already.’_

“For someone who’s said they’re older than Liam, you are somehow even only half as +SMART as he is.” Vera sighed and Oz readied themselves for some new scathing verbal abuse that he’d wholly deserve for all the frustration he put the gorgon through weeks prior. Instead, all she did was grab their arm and command, “Here follow me.” 

Oh, no. This was it wasn’t it? Vera was going to lead them into an underground gang of werewerewolves, which were just wolves in actuality, where she would beat out the shadow essence from them and make a profit on the market by selling it as a fashionable accessory! Could they make a break for it now? No, they deserved this. They could take being sold on the black market! They were ready! 

“But you can surround yourself with the people of your choice, and they can become your family too, in a way.” 

Huh? Oz opened their eyes. Realizing it was coach that was speaking. Oz’s hunch had only been half right as they found themselves surrounded by the likes of the wolfpack and Scott and- the colour squad! 

“Oz! There you are!” Vicky called, enveloping in a hug. Brian giving him a thumbs up over her head while Amira waved at him. Oz was about to greet them when he felt a tap on their arm and the tickle of a snake against their neck. Vera hissed in their ear,

“Listen.” 

Scott had interrupted Coach, “Like making a team of the people you love! But..but what if the team also abandons you…?” 

Oz rubbed their arm, phobias all stiff at attention when Vera stepped up. 

“No Scott. Let me tell you something I read once…” She said, glancing over at Oz. Her gaze seemed less petrifying than usual. “There are two ways to avoid suffering in this particular hell that is life. The easy way is accepting and becoming part of it, until you can’t recognize hell itself. The second way.. is to recognize the parts of Hell that aren’t hell. Then make them endure it, give them space.” 

She turned to Scott, “What I want to say is that you are pure, you are one of the full people that remind me life doesn’t need to be Hell, that people don’t need to be shit. What I want to say is no, we won’t ever abandon you, Scott. You’re part of this family.” 

Scott sniffled, as Vera stepped back. Oz signed quietly to her ‘That was beautiful…’ 

“Don’t get used to me being sentimental.” The gorgon murmured, green skin a deeper green across his face. Her snakes hissed as she lowered her voice, “But what I want you to learn is that, you don’t always get to choose your family, but sometimes, you get to. And the people around you may not have grown up with you or even be the same kind of Monster, but they can be family. And those.” 

She pointed a nail at where Vicky was trying to convince Brian to switch limbs with her, while Amira watched amusedly, “Could be the start of a family you choose. For yourself.” 

_"But… what if they don’t accept me for who I really am. I’m not like Scott. I’m… different. What if, in the end, they don’t want to be my family?"_

“Then, they weren’t meant to be your family. But look Oz, in the short time you’ve brought my grade down, attempted to become death threat penpals with me all in the aid just to earn my friendship and eventually join my own family….” She took a breath, “ I can see you’re at least earnest. And, well, even if that family over there, one day decides they’re not good enough for you. Perhaps.. one day, with time, I’ll consider you a part of mine.” 

“…..” 

“Oz?” 

“Thank you.” The sound rasped quietly in her head, so soft she could’ve mistaken it for a whisper, were it not for the fact that it was clearly heard over the sound of the music. No, not over the music of the prom, but in her own head. She turned to the monster, but Oz hadn’t spontaneously sprouted a second head or formed a mouth of any kind. Their hands remained still by their side, but their white eyes were crinkled up as if in a smile. 

She composed herself, running a hand through her snakes. She wouldn’t be caught off guard again. 

“Go spend some time with your family.” Vera said, gesturing to where Amira and Brian were trying to convince Vicky not to swimming pool dive into the punch bowl (especially since Polly had probably spiked it). 

Oz nodded, signed, _‘You should go spend some time with your too.’_

Vera returned the nod, but stopped short of going to join Scott, Val and the wolfpack whom were showing off their Ikebana, “Oz.” She called, “Perhaps, tomorrow night, you’d like to join my family and I for dinner? We never did get to try your cobbler.” 

Oz paused, looking up at her before they signed back

_‘Okay. See you Vera.’_

She nodded once more, then disappeared into the crowd as Oz turned to join their own friends. Vicky waving to them once more. 

_‘-because they care for me. So yes they ARE family.’_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :3


End file.
